siLLy puPPy While adopting a name that may sound like the perfect Mayhem tribute band, MAYHEMIC is actually a newer extreme blackened thrash metal act that comes from the suburbs of Santiago, Chile and having formed in 2018 has released a few singles and an EP. The time has come for the band to blow like the volcanic eruption from which the band’s debut full-length album TOBA derives its title. The album was named after a supervolcanic eruption that occurred around 74,000 years ago in what’s now the island of Sumatra in Indonesia. Now who says metal music can’t be educational? This band means business with a ferocious unhinged delivery system of some of the most brutally demanding thrash metal attacks since the days of speed gurus Sadus.

This band of Magelis (bass), Noctumbra (guitars, vocals), Doom (guitar, vocals) and Leviathan (drums) is one of many Chilean bands that have been getting that narrow coastal nation a lot of attention in recent years and along with Demoniac and Inanna has caught the entire world by storm with a raging uncompromising attack of molten metal magma ready to erupt in your ear drums like the TOBA eruption that laid a large section of the planet to waste. This is a no nonsense type of thrash metal attack with no bells and whistles. No progressive interludes into space journeys and no moments of downtime with acoustic segments as even the paradoxical track titled “Olduvai’s Lullaby” lashes out in a rabid pyroclastic flow of adrenalized furor. The album of eight tracks clocks in at a traditional album’s time of 36 1/2 minutes which is the perfect limiting factor for an exhausting bombastic display of raw metal on the rampage.

As far as modern thrash metal bands are concerned, MAYHEMIC offers a more traditional approach that one would hear in the genre’s peak years of the late 80s and early 90s before it splintered into more experimental sounds or subgenres like groove metal. While retro bands can be a little hit or miss, MAYHEMIC delivers the traditional thrash metal attributes with extreme precision and a blackened edge all delivered in a frenetic pace with dueling guitar attacks and a punishing percussive drive. On top of that the compositors are all top notch and the vocal style of the indistinguishable trading off of Noctumbra and Doom offers a blackened raspiness that adds a touch of more extreme elements to the usual thrash metal menu. The vocals remind me a lot of Japanese metal bands such as Sigh or Sabbat and honestly doesn’t sound like any of the other blackened thrash metal bands i’ve encountered from Chile so far.

While not exactly reinventing the wheel or anything, MAYHEMIC is all about competence and attitude as it unleashes a ferocious attack of blistering metal with a brash bravado that is incessant in its procession through the album’s run. Comparing with past bands is a bit difficult as MAYHEMIC sort of latches onto many aspects of the golden age of extreme thrash metal with moments of Sadus, Kreator, Sodom, Possessed, Overkill and Sepultura bleeding through but in the end MAYHEMIC makes it all their own and delivers it all with a punishing brutality that offers an electrifying uproar of metal madness. Watch out, world. Chile has erupted and spewing its noisy din across the world at an amazing speed. South America is on fire lately in the metal world and Chile has been one of the nations with the most talented bands climbing up the metal royalty ladder. Santiago is a city to watch out for in the future for sure.